The other side of the past difficult fortnight regarding news/decisions on finances and the need to introduce a voluntary contribution is that many good things went on as well and are continuing: I've just had parents Tomasz and Marcin, Brian, Linus, Derek, Ray, Chidi and Izabela's husband Pietr and her son Bartosz join us to move donations of office furniture into our school and into the Community Centre. This was community spirit at its best. Thank you so much to each and every one of you for helping out and working so hard today. The cost of buying the furniture and filing cabinets would be a good few thousand euro. Sadly there wasn't time to collect the piano so we will let you know what time and date the piano can be moved and maybe you can help us then.

Thanks again to Tomasz for bringing along his van and collecting the furniture with Marcin and Brian from Brian's office, delivering it to the school and generally spending their whole Saturday afternoon working hard for or school.

Thank you also to the Board of Management members, the PGTA Committee Members and all of you who gave up so much time to come to meetings in the school over the past two weeks to discuss finances, fundraising and the development of an Attendance Strategy. It is really great to see so many parents/guardians both getting involved and continuing to be involved. If you couldn't make it so far, there will be many more opportunities in the future and every single one of you will be welcomed greatly.

Thank you also to all of you who are contributing via the voluntary contribution and in so many other ways especially by giving your time. In the past week alone we received the following: A4 paper and folders were donated by Gillian, parent of a child in Senior Infants. Ruairí, parent of a child in 2nd Class, has arranged for a Printing Company to let us have their Off-Cuts of paper and card which we can collect from them. Edel brought in coloured paper, soap and toilet rolls. Gwen gave us some more change of clothes items. Geraldine (one of our SNAs) brought in dress-up clothes and jigsaws and games. Lisa baked cakes for the principals' meeting in our school yesterday and collected some of the large cardboard sheets from Recreate. Thank you all so much.

The piano which is on the way from Jennie, parent of a child in 2nd Class and which couldn't after all be collected/delivered today will need moving next week as stated already. It will still need tuning so let me know if you can tune a piano or if you know someone who can.

Besides the original pallets, delivered by our caretaker (on an as needed basis) Brendan, two more wooden pallets were donated by Noel, my brother-in-law, to add to our 'Bug Hotel' and please do continue to collect logs and twigs and leaves to make the hotel comfortable for the bugs.​In addition to the large amount of furniture coming in from Brian's office a large wooden cupboard was donated and delivered by Shamir, parent of a child in Junior Infants, with some more to come.

Our school 'Wish List' is growing nicely with the following items already on it: folders / desktop magazine racks / paper & card for children to write & draw on / dress-up clothes / pairs of socks / jigsaw puzzles / games such as ludo, scrabble, draughts etc. / 1c, 2c and 5c coins for maths / scraps of fabric for use in art / fabric to make loose washable covers for our bean bags and someone to make the covers. We'll keep you updated with this list and its progress.

Thanks also to Julie for collecting crocus/daffodil bulbs for our school from SDCC.

Recent Events:On Monday 14th November the Sam Maguire Cup and Dublin Player Con Callaghan were received with great joy by all the children and staff as well as the HSE staff who were in to give vaccinations to Junior Infants. It was a great start to the week and I'd like to say a big 'Thank You' to Adam, our coach from St Anne's GAA Club who organised for Con to bring the cup to our school.

All went well with the vaccinations on November 14th for our Junior Infant Classes and then Science Week unfolded with all sorts of things from lava lamps, volcanic eruptions, beaver moon gazing, flowers turning blue to questions on what materials are waterproof and whether bubblewrap, a woolly jumper, newspaper or tin foil keeps a hot water bottle warm the best?

​Our new secretary Lisa is settling in nicely and I'd like to thank Lisa for all the great work she did as Chairperson of the PGTA. Thanks a million Lisa. I'd also like to welcome Ciarán (Freir) to the role of Chairperson of our PGTA and wish him the very best as well as assure him of our support.

On Wednesday 16th November Mihaela did another 'Move It Morning' for us with growling tigers and jumping bunnies and we hope to have her back for a third 'Move It Morning' next Wednesday too. So come along to the yard and join in the fun. (The yard gate is monitored during 'Move It Mornings' by our teacher Cillian so if you need to leave the children are safe).

Our Forest School Project continued with Sharon who came in on Thursday 17th November to explain more about planting trees, to all classes, and how the old Irish alphabet was based on the Irish language names for different trees. ​Upcoming Events:Next week parent teacher meeting will take place and we look forward to welcoming you into the school and chatting with you about your child's/children's progress.

After the Parent Teacher Meetings we will be getting organised for our show on December 22nd which we want to develop into a celebration of diversity this year. We will be asking those of you who would like to play music to accompany the children's singing to join us in organising this event.

There is a lot happening in our great little school and thank you for being a part of it with us. Please give me a call if there's anything you would like to chat about: 087 330 1332.​Very, very best regards,Collette and all the staff of Firhouse Educate Together National School